Special Media to Inform the Important Events that Occurred in Papua Relates to the Struggle of the People of West Papua in Promoting Self-Determination under International Law.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Indonesian police open fire on civilians in West Papua

Catholic brother says one person was killed and two injured when police shot at villagers who refused to cut hair and beards.

One person is said to have been killed and at least two others
injured on Monday when Indonesian riot police opened fire on civilians
in Waghete, West Papua. Spokesperson
for the Papuan provincial police Sulistyo Pudjo told Guardian Australia
that the shooting occurred when police tried to disperse a mob that was
attacking them. "There were provocateurs who were throwing rocks at the police and military. One military person was wounded," he said.

However,
according to Father Santon Tekege, a Catholic brother who lives in the
capital Jayapura but hails from the remote village in West Papua's
Deiyai regency, the victims were targeted because they refused to cut
their long hair and beards during a random police search operation.

Tekege
told Guardian Australia that the Indonesian police's mobile brigade
(Brimob) was carrying out a "sweeping" operation at the local market on
Monday when the incident occurred. "Brimob had scissors to cut
people's long hair and beards," Tekege said. "The police always
stigmatise those with long hair, dreadlocks and long beards as being
separatists."

West Papuans have been agitating for independence from Indonesia since the province was acquired with a sham ballot in 1969. "[The
police] were also sweeping for nukens (traditional dillybags) that had
designs of the Morning Star flag or had 'Papua' written on them," Tekege
said. "Mobile phones were confiscated and Brimob was checking the songs
on people's mobile phones."

When locals refused to comply with police they were shot, he said. Alpius
Mote, 20, was killed, another was seriously injured, and a third person
shot in the arm, according to Tekege. He said police also arrested two
people, one of whom had since been released. Pudjo confirmed a
shooting had occurred and that people were arrested, but denied the
unrest began as an argument over long hair.

"Market day must have
security and it just so happened there were lots of drunken people there
and people gambling. Our officers reminded them not to get drunk at the
market or they would disturb the traders.
"The people besieged the police and army," he said.

After
the incident, Tekege said the regional government "put out a letter to
the citizens urging them to be calm and not to carry out actions in
retaliation".

When Guardian Australia spoke to him on Tuesday, he
said: "Today things are still tense. Community members are at their
offices as usual but civilians are scared to go out from their homes
because Brimob, soldiers and police are still on number one [maximum]
alert.

"All activities at the local community markets have stopped. They are still guarding the area."
Benny
Giay, the moderator of West Papua's Kingmi Church who has family in
Waghete, told Guardian Australia from Jayapura: "[The Indonesian
authorities] think that Papuans who have long hair are uncivilised so
they go around and try to cut their hair. They did this in the 1980s as
well.

"The man who was killed [on Monday] tried to raise his
objections and he got shot. It was the actions of the police [that
started the unrest] – they were going around with big scissors and
cutting hair. If there was [a riot] it was a response to what the police
were doing," he said.